Report: MacBooks Expected to Be WWDC Highlight This Year

Apple once again delighted notebook owners with the debut of the MacBook Pro with Retina Display at WWDC 2012, and at least one analyst believes Cupertino will do the same again this year.

MacRumors reported Sunday that the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models are expected to be a highlight of the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference this year, which kicks off in San Francisco on June 10.

According to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple appears likely to introduce new models powered by Intel's latest Haswell architecture. While this revelation is hardly a surprise, Kuo claims the company will also continue to push its older non-Retina notebooks, which he previously marked for death.

"Contrary to our previous projection, we now think Apple will continue to make the MacBook Pro alongside the MacBook Air and Retina MacBook Pro because the 13-inch MacBook Pro remains the most popular product in the MacBook line," Kuo said in a new report to investors. "Also, there is still demand in emerging markets, where Internet penetration isn’t advanced, for optical disk drives."

While the "wow" factor is likely to be on faster and more capable MacBook Pro with Retina Display models, refreshed versions of the non-Retina MacBook Pro are expected to ship soon after WWDC, while the new Retina-equipped models could ship "somewhat later" as the result of production delays with the high-resolution display.

While an upgrade also appears to be in the cards for the MacBook Air, Kuo cautions that it's unlikely to receive the Retina bump in time for WWDC as Cupertino continues to enjoy high margins on the Pro models.